Sunday, October 8, 2017

Anasthasia




Well I didn't even know there was a version of this with a rap on it - let alone the squawking diva




The "Out of History Mix" is, I think, the one I like (and love the title)



Also the Cave Edit (another good title) - very spare and empty at first



And the Dub Mix




"Rehurse Eq" - what's that when it's at home?



Is this an unofficial remix from back in the day?


This claims to be one too but i can't hear much remixing going on



Then there's this recent-ish remix by Perc + Truss - nice bit of retro-slam action




Of T.99's one true moment of glory I wrote this (as part of an eMusic round-up called the Rave Dozen):

t.99
Anasthasia

For a couple of years in the early 90s, Belgium ruled rave culture, spewing out a series of innovatively abrasive tunes that rocked ravefloors across the world while also upsetting droves of Chicago house/Detroit techno purists, who saw the style as eradicating techno’s links to black music altogether. And its true, the Belgian sound, as pioneered by labels like Hithouse, Who’s That Beat, R&S and 80 Aum, did turn away from the Afro-American wellspring and drink deep on strictly Euro sources. Its secret ingredients were a strong dose of Electronic Body Music, that stiff-jointed but dancefloor oriented offshoot of industrial trailblazed by Belgium’s own Front 242, and a pungent tang of classical music, especially the more sturm und drang-y Carl Orff/Wagner end of it.


Out of all the Belgian hardcore hitmakers, t.99 were the biggest crossover success, reaching #14 in the UK charts in May 1991 with “Anasthasia” and also scoring with the near-identical “Noctune”. The principal hook in  “Anasthasia” is a hard-angled stab pattern playing what sounds like a choral sample (possibly the famous “O Fortuna” sequence of Orff’s Carmina Burana). The intro to the track, a female voice saying “music, maestro, please” is at once a nod to the quasi-classical vibe of the tune and an advance rejoinder to the horrified hordes of house purists who would decry this slice of brutalist bombast as “just not music”. 

Actually the parts of “Anasthasia” that don’t feature the portentous fanfare-blare of the riff are quite pleasant: a chugging Euro-haus groove topped with wafting synths, almost like “Pacific State” without that cheesy saxophone. But the harsh ‘n’ doomy hook-stab does always return at regular intervals,  sounding a bit like a flock of crows cackling in scorn. 

The four mixes are fairly indistinguishable (this was a time when remixes were precisely that, remixes, as opposed to virtually brand-new tracks), the “Out of History” version perhaps having the edge by a whisker. 

That’s an intriguing sub-title, actually:  were t.99’s Patrick de Meyer and Olivier Abbeloos hinting that rave was a gigantic exodus of disaffected and politically disengaged youth leaving reality behind for a utopia of druggy noise? Or was the idea more apocalyptic, as in “we’re running out of time”? Or a bit of both, as suggested by the title of the debut t.99 album Children of Chaos

Sadly, following its 1992 release, the duo themselves headed for the dustbin of (dance) history. 


Their other glory-ish moment- "Nocturne"


Yet more C+C Music Factory style Eurodance rappige and diva sqwawkage

"Nocturne" came in mixes indexed to particular times of the night - stations on the journey to the end of the rave - a cute 'n' clever idea!




The same idea as "Anasthasia" / "Nocturne" pretty much



Different, but not good - the video is quite a period piece though




Oh the pathos of the rave single-artist album...




Fairly banging, reasonably slamming:



Before they were hardcore, they were New Beat








1 comment:

Ian_s said...

The rap mix is by The Valentine Boys (aka Kicks Like A Mule). No clue who the dodgy rapper and female vocalist are. Also the "Music Maestro please" sample is from Love Unlimited Orchestra. Nobody knows what the kind of african-y sample says or where it's from.